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"A small volume for igniting big discussions" (Booklist), the renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm's On Empire is a major new intellectual resource for anyone seeking to understand America's fate in the new millennium.
In four brief chapters encompassing a century of world history, Hobsbawm engages the key questions of our era with his characteristic wit, precision, and historical breadth of knowledge. A startling image of danger and instability emerges as On Empire sketches the tangled relationship between globalization, war, and the prospects for peace in a world that has witnessed uninterrupted military conflict since 1914.
It is against this somber backdrop that Hobsbawm offers his views about why America will never achieve the dominance of past empires—despite the overwhelming preponderance of U.S. military power in the world. And in a powerful series of historical observations about the war in Iraq, Hobsbawm dismantles every major assumption underlying American military strategy, demonstrating the utter futility of U.S. hopes for “victory” in the Middle East.
"Good grounds for heated discussion about America's role in the world" (Kirkus Reviews), On Empire is a brilliant new intellectual volley from “our greatest living historian” (The New York Review of Books).
In four brief chapters encompassing a century of world history, Hobsbawm engages the key questions of our era with his characteristic wit, precision, and historical breadth of knowledge. A startling image of danger and instability emerges as On Empire sketches the tangled relationship between globalization, war, and the prospects for peace in a world that has witnessed uninterrupted military conflict since 1914.
It is against this somber backdrop that Hobsbawm offers his views about why America will never achieve the dominance of past empires—despite the overwhelming preponderance of U.S. military power in the world. And in a powerful series of historical observations about the war in Iraq, Hobsbawm dismantles every major assumption underlying American military strategy, demonstrating the utter futility of U.S. hopes for “victory” in the Middle East.
"Good grounds for heated discussion about America's role in the world" (Kirkus Reviews), On Empire is a brilliant new intellectual volley from “our greatest living historian” (The New York Review of Books).
Price: $12.95
Pages: 128
Publisher: The New Press
Imprint: The New Press
Publication Date:
16 June 2009
Trim Size: 7.50 X 5.25 in
ISBN: 9781595584656
Format: Paperback
As close to essential reading as the times allow.
—THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
The popular people's historian who has influenced our understanding of the previous three centuries like no other.
—THE BOSTON GLOBE
The fact is that no other living historian [before Hobsbawm's death in 2012] of whatever political affiliation has the intellectual firepower—the range and depth of knowledge, the analytical skill.
—NIALL FERGUSON, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
No historian can match his overwhelming command of fact and source. . . . Hobsbawm's gift for startling, often seductive generalizations from his material has only grown.
—NEAL ASCHERSON, THE INDEPENDENT
—THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
The popular people's historian who has influenced our understanding of the previous three centuries like no other.
—THE BOSTON GLOBE
The fact is that no other living historian [before Hobsbawm's death in 2012] of whatever political affiliation has the intellectual firepower—the range and depth of knowledge, the analytical skill.
—NIALL FERGUSON, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
No historian can match his overwhelming command of fact and source. . . . Hobsbawm's gift for startling, often seductive generalizations from his material has only grown.
—NEAL ASCHERSON, THE INDEPENDENT
Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) was born in Egypt in 1917 and educated in Austria, Germany, and England. He taught at Birkbeck College, the University of London, and the New School for Social Research in New York. He is the author of The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital, The Age of Empire, and The Age of Extremes as well as On History, Uncommon People, Industry and Empire, Bandits, On the Edge of the New Century, Revolutionaries, On Empire, Fractured Times, and his memoir Interesting Times (The New Press).